Beirut[/caption]
The 2018 Annapolis Film Festival will screen more than 80 films from 28 countries during the festival taking place March 22 to 25, 2018, including a U.S. premiere and four films from Sundance making their East Coast premiere, The Festival’s new theme: Voices Strong. Minds Open, is threaded throughout the four-day program of films, panels, parties, showcases, coffee talks, and Q&As with filmmakers.
“The diversity in this year’s slate is more than we have ever had. Audiences will get to experience firsthand the depth of this slate because many great directors, producers and talent are accompanying their films,” said Patti White, Festival Director. Some films have been sourced locally right here in Maryland, others come from afar including, Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Israel, Italy, Iran, Ireland, France, Georgia, Germany, Norway, Pakistan, Spain, Sweden, Slovenia, Swaziland, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom and Venezuela.
Narrative films include the Opening Night political thriller, Beirut, directed by Brad Anderson and starring Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike, at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, which will be followed by a Q&A with producer Monica Levinson and industry professionals.
Other narrative films selected are: Beauty and the Dogs – Khaled Walid Barsaoui, Kaouther Ben Hania; Beauty Mark – Harris Doran; Bernard and Huey – Dan Mirvish; Butterfly Kisses – Erik Kristopher Myers; Cardinals – Grayson Moore, Aidan Shipley; Come Sunday – Joshua Marston; A Crooked Somebody– Trevor White; Disappearance – Ali Asgari; Flock of Four – Gregory Caruso; Hearts Beat Loud – Brett Haley; Humor Me – Sam Hoffman; Kiss Me! – Océane Michel, Cyprien Vial; Mary Goes Round – Molly McGlynn; The Miracle Season – Sean McNamara; The Rider – Chloé Zhao; Spinning Man – Simon Kaijser; Wallay – Berni Goldblat, and What Will People Say– Iram Haq.
Documentary features have also been chosen, including: Acorn and the Firestorm – Reuben Atlas, Samuel D. Pollard; Coyote: The Mike Plant Story – Thomas M. Simmons; Finding Home – AB Troen; Itzhak – Alison Chernick; Kim Swims – Kate Webber; Liyana – Aaron Kopp, Amanda Kopp; Lots of Kids, A Monkey, and a Castle – Gustavo Salmerón; Love Means Zero – Jason Kohn; New Wave: Dare To Be Different – Ellen Goldfarb; Resistance is Life – Apo W. Bazidi; Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me – Samuel D. Pollard; Stumped – Robin Berghaus; Three Identical Strangers – Tim Wardle; True Conviction – Jamie Meltzer; Waiting for the Sun – Kaspar Astrup Schröder; and What Lies Upstream – Cullen Hoback, and a special screening of the NBC Originals documentary Courageous: Ted Turner and the 1977 America’s Cup.
The film debuting for its U.S. premiere is The Miracle Season, directed by Sean McNamara and starring Helen Hunt as the coach of a volleyball team who must unite the team in hopes of winning the state championship in the wake of the tragic death of a star player. The four films making their East Coast premiere include Beirut; Come Sunday, directed by Joshua Marston and starring Martin Sheen and Chiwetel Ejiofor as real-life American evangelical preacher Carlton Pearson, who risks everything when he questions church doctrine and is branded a modern-day heretic; Hearts Beat Loud, directed by Brett Haley and starring Nick Offerman as a record store owner, who is forced to close his shop, and decides to form a band with his college-bound daughter; and documentary Three Identical Strangers, directed by Tim Wardle, which follows the incredible true story of triplets who learned of one another’s existence only at age 19, their initial joy giving way to increasingly unsettling discoveries.
In addition to award-winning features, AFF has made its mark now in its sixth year by continually bringing a lineup of compelling short films. Two shorts that screened at last year’s AFF landed on the Oscar’s Shortlist for Best Live Action Shorts, with DeKalb Elementary still contending for the Oscar at the upcoming 90th Academy Awards.
Film Festivals
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2018 Annapolis Film Festival to Screen Over 80 Films, “Beirut” “The Miracle Season” and More..
[caption id="attachment_27333" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Beirut[/caption]
The 2018 Annapolis Film Festival will screen more than 80 films from 28 countries during the festival taking place March 22 to 25, 2018, including a U.S. premiere and four films from Sundance making their East Coast premiere, The Festival’s new theme: Voices Strong. Minds Open, is threaded throughout the four-day program of films, panels, parties, showcases, coffee talks, and Q&As with filmmakers.
“The diversity in this year’s slate is more than we have ever had. Audiences will get to experience firsthand the depth of this slate because many great directors, producers and talent are accompanying their films,” said Patti White, Festival Director. Some films have been sourced locally right here in Maryland, others come from afar including, Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Israel, Italy, Iran, Ireland, France, Georgia, Germany, Norway, Pakistan, Spain, Sweden, Slovenia, Swaziland, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom and Venezuela.
Narrative films include the Opening Night political thriller, Beirut, directed by Brad Anderson and starring Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike, at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, which will be followed by a Q&A with producer Monica Levinson and industry professionals.
Other narrative films selected are: Beauty and the Dogs – Khaled Walid Barsaoui, Kaouther Ben Hania; Beauty Mark – Harris Doran; Bernard and Huey – Dan Mirvish; Butterfly Kisses – Erik Kristopher Myers; Cardinals – Grayson Moore, Aidan Shipley; Come Sunday – Joshua Marston; A Crooked Somebody– Trevor White; Disappearance – Ali Asgari; Flock of Four – Gregory Caruso; Hearts Beat Loud – Brett Haley; Humor Me – Sam Hoffman; Kiss Me! – Océane Michel, Cyprien Vial; Mary Goes Round – Molly McGlynn; The Miracle Season – Sean McNamara; The Rider – Chloé Zhao; Spinning Man – Simon Kaijser; Wallay – Berni Goldblat, and What Will People Say– Iram Haq.
Documentary features have also been chosen, including: Acorn and the Firestorm – Reuben Atlas, Samuel D. Pollard; Coyote: The Mike Plant Story – Thomas M. Simmons; Finding Home – AB Troen; Itzhak – Alison Chernick; Kim Swims – Kate Webber; Liyana – Aaron Kopp, Amanda Kopp; Lots of Kids, A Monkey, and a Castle – Gustavo Salmerón; Love Means Zero – Jason Kohn; New Wave: Dare To Be Different – Ellen Goldfarb; Resistance is Life – Apo W. Bazidi; Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me – Samuel D. Pollard; Stumped – Robin Berghaus; Three Identical Strangers – Tim Wardle; True Conviction – Jamie Meltzer; Waiting for the Sun – Kaspar Astrup Schröder; and What Lies Upstream – Cullen Hoback, and a special screening of the NBC Originals documentary Courageous: Ted Turner and the 1977 America’s Cup.
The film debuting for its U.S. premiere is The Miracle Season, directed by Sean McNamara and starring Helen Hunt as the coach of a volleyball team who must unite the team in hopes of winning the state championship in the wake of the tragic death of a star player. The four films making their East Coast premiere include Beirut; Come Sunday, directed by Joshua Marston and starring Martin Sheen and Chiwetel Ejiofor as real-life American evangelical preacher Carlton Pearson, who risks everything when he questions church doctrine and is branded a modern-day heretic; Hearts Beat Loud, directed by Brett Haley and starring Nick Offerman as a record store owner, who is forced to close his shop, and decides to form a band with his college-bound daughter; and documentary Three Identical Strangers, directed by Tim Wardle, which follows the incredible true story of triplets who learned of one another’s existence only at age 19, their initial joy giving way to increasingly unsettling discoveries.
In addition to award-winning features, AFF has made its mark now in its sixth year by continually bringing a lineup of compelling short films. Two shorts that screened at last year’s AFF landed on the Oscar’s Shortlist for Best Live Action Shorts, with DeKalb Elementary still contending for the Oscar at the upcoming 90th Academy Awards.
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Filmmaker Roger Corman to Receive “Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking” Award at Austin Film Festival
Filmmaker Roger Corman will receive the “Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking” Award at the 25th annual Austin Film Festival, taking place October 25 to November 1, 2018.
For the past sixty years, Roger Corman has been a trailblazer in the world of independent film. He has produced and directed over five hundred movies that have tackled a variety of genres. Notable credits include The Wild Angels, The Pit and the Pendulum, Little Shop of Horrors, Death Race 2000, and Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.
In the 1970s Corman founded New World Pictures which quickly became the largest independent motion picture distribution company in the United States. In addition to distributing his own productions, New World Pictures was one of the first American distributors to bring foreign cinema to the US; distributing the films of Akira Kurosawa, Francois Truffaut, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, and Werner Herzog.
Noted for his keen ability to spot young talent, Corman’s most lasting legacy is the legion of producers, directors, writers, and actors he has discovered and fostered, including Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Fonda, Sylvester Stallone, Sandra Bullock, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, Talia Shire, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Joe Dante, Jonathan Demme, Gale Anne Hurd, and James Cameron.
Corman will accept his award on Saturday, October 27th during the annual Awards Luncheon. Past recipients of this award have included Danny Boyle, Jonathan Demme, Walter Hill, Ron Howard, Sydney Pollack, John Singleton, and Oliver Stone. More awardees for this year’s Festival will be announced at a later date.
The 2018 Austin Film Festival and Writers Conference will once again present over 150 panels on the art and craft of storytelling featuring a slate comprised entirely of working film, television, and new media industry professionals. Corman joins a growing list of panelists who already include Megan Amram, John August, Mick Garris, Nicole Perlman, Ed Solomon, and Graham Yost. The 25th annual Austin Film Festival and Conference will take place October 25th through November 1st, 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4EGb-DkfXU
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San Francisco International Film Festival to Honor Charlize Theron with Tribute + Screening of TULLY
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THE DRUMMER AND THE KEEPER to Open, BORG VS. MCENROE to Close 2018 Cleveland International Film Festival
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THE DRUMMER AND THE KEEPER[/caption]
The 42nd Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF42) is kicking-off its 12-day run with a story of new-formed friendship, and closing with a look at an epic rivalry that took the tennis world by storm. CIFF42 will be held April 4 to 15, 2018 at Tower City Cinemas and select neighborhood screening locations.
The CIFF42 will open on Wednesday, April 4th, with THE DRUMMER AND THE KEEPER. Directed by Nick Kelly, the film tells the story of the unlikely friendship formed between two young men: Gabriel, a reckless young drummer with bipolar disorder; and, Christopher, a 17-year-old with Asperger’s Syndrome, who yearns to fit in. This heartwarming story shows the strength of the human bond in the face of adversity. The film stars a collection of talented Irish actors including Dermot Murphy, Jacob McCarthy, and Peter Coonan. Special Guests expected to be in attendance on Opening Night include director Nick Kelly, producer Kate McColgan, as well as actors Dermot Murphy and Jacob McCarthy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ExhyLIdEHs
On Sunday, April 15th at 7:00 p.m. the Festival will close with BORG VS. MCENROE. Directed by Janus Metz, the film tells the story of the rivalry between two tennis champs: the calm and cool Björn Borg, played by Sverrir Gudnason, and his fiercest competitor, the brash John McEnroe, played by Shia LaBeouf. The story culminates with a legendary meeting on the court at the 1980 Wimbledon Championships.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgfFdEOGUqE
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SXSW 2018: Watch New Teaser Trailer for Megan Griffiths’ SADIE Starring OITNB Danielle Brooks
Here is the new teaser trailer for Megan Griffiths’ SADIE which will premiere at the 2018 SXSW. The film, which is in the festival’s Narrative Feature Competition, also features Arrested Development‘s Tony Hale taking a dramatic turn, Orange is the New Black favorite Danielle Brooks as well as young actor Keith Williams who has appeared in The Last Man on Earth. Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready composed the film’s score. SADIE also stars Sophia Mitri Schloss, Melanie Lynskey, and John Gallagher Jr.
SADIE is the story of a 13-year-old girl (Sophia Mitri Schloss) who lives at home with her mother (Melanie Lynskey) while her father serves repeated tours in the military. Sadie is extremely attached to her father despite his prolonged absence, and when her mother begins dating a new man (John Gallagher Jr.), Sadie takes extreme measures to end the relationship and safeguard her family through the only tactics she knows – those of war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk1lgi7fjwc
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Award-Winning Screenwriter and Filmmaker Robin Swicord to Receive Spotlight Award at San Luis Obispo Film Fest
Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker Robin Swicord will be this year’s Spotlight Award honoree at the 2018 San Luis Obispo Film Fest. The Spotlight Award will be presented to Swicord by SLO Film Fest founder, Mary Harris, during the Closing Night Awards ceremony on Sunday, March 18 at the Fremont Theater. Following the presentation, Variety’s Jenelle Riley will host a discussion of Swicord’s distinguished and wide-ranging career.
Swicord will also participate on the screenwriter’s panel, “It All Starts with a Good Story” with her husband and frequent collaborator, Nicholas Kazan (Reversal of Fortune), as well as former Spotlight Award recipient, Anthony Peckham (Invictus). The trio will discuss screenwriting and the current state of their trade as new opportunities arise in television, VOD and now-popular documentaries on Saturday, March 17, from 10:30AM-11:45AM in the Festival Hospitality Tent.
Robin Swicord is primarily known for her work as a screenwriter for a number of critically acclaimed and beloved films including; Memoirs of a Geisha (which won a Satellite Award for Best Screenplay); Little Women (for which she co-produced, as well as received a Writers Guild Award nomination); Matilda (which was co-written and co-produced with Nicholas Kazan); Shag; The Perez Family; and Practical Magic. In 2009 Swicord received an Oscar nomination for her contribution to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a project Swicord originated and worked on for more than a decade. She has also written two plays that were produced off-Broadway (Last Days at the Dixie Girl Café, and Criminal Minds).
Swicord made her feature-directing debut with Sony Picture Classic’s The Jane Austen Book Club, produced by Julie Lynn and John Calley, for which Swicord also wrote the screenplay adaptation. Most recently, she wrote and directed Wakefield, starring Bryan Cranston and Jennifer Garner. She is currently collaborating with Ava DuVernay on DuVernay’s five-part miniseries about the Central Park Five, for Netflix.
A leader within the screenwriting community, with a reputation for “giving back,” Swicord is a Governor for the Writers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and chairs the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship. She mentors for the Sundance Screenwriting lab, and often co-leads Film Independent’s Writers Lab. In 2015 she helped create and launch the inaugural Hedgebrook Screenwriting Workshop for women writers, which she led in October of this year. Swicord is married to writer-director Nicholas Kazan; they have two daughters, actor-writer Zoe Kazan and actor-writer Maya Kazan.
image via Youtube
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2018 Boston Underground Film Festival Reveals First Wave of Films, Opens with Award Winning “My Name is Myeisha”
[caption id="attachment_27273" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
My Name is Myeisha[/caption]
The 20th annual Boston Underground Film Festival returns to Harvard Square, bringing with it a five day fever dream of vanguard and description-defying filmmaking, including soul- thrillers/killers/chillers, to the Brattle Theatre and Harvard Film Archive from March 21st through the 25th, 2018.
Kicking off the festival is the East Coast premiere of My Name is Myeisha, a phantasmagorical meditation on a beloved teen’s life cut tragically short, told from her perspective at the moment of her unjust death. On the heels of its 2018 Slamdance world premiere, where it garnered both the Audience Award for Beyond Feature and the Slamdance Acting Award for breakout performance by lead Rhaechyl Walker, My Name is Myeisha is a bold and beautiful adaptation of co-writer Rickerby Hinds’ play, Dreamscape, that demands and deserves your attention. Director Gus Krieger and star Walker will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.
BUFF is taking its love of the beyond to the next level with a rare repertory screening of Slava Tsukerman’s underground masterpiece of avant-garde sci-fi and queer cinema, Liquid Sky. Nearly 35 years to the day since its theatrical release, BUFF is ecstatic to be presenting this neon-drenched, new wave, electroclashtastic cult classic on lush 35mm.
BUFF is bringing double trouble from the French film vanguard with the East Coast premiere of Coralie Fargeat‘s genre-flipping, outré feature debut Revenge and the New England premiere of BUFF alumni Bruno Forzani & Hélène Cattet’s piece de resistance, Let the Corpses Tan. Fargeat revamps the rape-revenge thriller subgenre, spinning a subversive monomythic tale of female survival and rebirth with fierce and formidable Matilda Lutz in the lead. Forzani and Cattet deliver another gorgeous, sensory-saturated homage to vintage genre, this time honing their craft in pulpy poliziotteschi perfection against a bullet-riddled spaghetti-Western backdrop.
Bleeding into the realm of real-world horror, BUFF will host the US premiere of Turkish writer-director Onur Saylak’s chilling debut Daha and the New England premiere of British writer-director Deborah Haywood’s stunning, deeply personal first feature Pin Cushion. While Haywood explores the visible and invisible wounds of intergenerational bullying as experienced by a mother and daughter in small town England, Saylak examines the cycle of intergenerational violence between a father and son caught up in the refugee smuggling trade in small town Turkey.
On the lighter side, BUFF will present the World Premiere of Stacy Buchanan & Jess Barnthouse’s homegrown horror doc Something Wicked This Way Comes and the New England Premiere of Aaron McCann & Dominic Pearce’s Aussie-by-way-of-Japan mocku-doc Top Knot Detective. Buchanan & Barnthouse give New England’s pop-horror-culture the full-feature treatment, exploring the region’s viability for growing our independent film scene with input from genre luminaries, horror fans, natives, and local filmmakers. McCann & Pearce explore Japan’s most beloved ronin detective, Sheimasu Tantai, from the 1970s style martial arts series RONIN SUIRI TENTAI (Deductive Reasoning Ronin), and his Oz-based cult fandom so thoroughly and hilariously that it’s nigh impossible to discern fact from fiction…it’s somehow beyond both.
As usual, the festival will present the kid-friendly annual Saturday Morning Cartoons program with cereal smorgasbord, programmed and hosted by renowned curator, author, publisher, and founder of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, Kier-La Janisse; a veritable bounty of shorts programming celebrating fantastic music videos, animation, transgressive horror; and more!
BOSTON UNDERGROUND FIRST WAVE
MY NAME IS MYEISHA – Opening Night | East Coast Premiere Gus Krieger | USA | 2018 On the evening of December 28th, 1998, Myeisha Jackson’s night ends with her asleep in her car, her cousins outside, and police on the way. In the fleeting moments before the unthinkable occurs, she awakes with a start inside her inner dreamscape and contemplates her life–what it was and what it was going to be. A metaphysical trip into Myeisha’s mind reveals a life brimming with promise on the cusp of adulthood–her secrets, goals, flaws, strengths, loves, and talents–and is fueled and expressed by her love of hip hop, dance, and spoken word as she comes to terms with what’s happened to her. DAHA – US Premiere Onur Saylak | Turkey | 2017 Young Gaza lives in a small town on Turkey’s Aegean coast and dreams of escaping the soul-crushing drudgery of the family business: smuggling refugees. Studious and still imbued with a youthful sense of optimism and innocence, Gaza is pulled deeper and deeper into a dark, immoral world of human suffering and exploitation by his domineering father; will he avoid becoming the monster he’s being raised to be? LET THE CORPSES TAN – New England Premiere Bruno Forzani, Hélène Cattet | France, Belgium | 2017 After stealing a cache of gold, Rhino and his gang discover a near-abandoned Mediterranean hamlet hideout, occupied by an inspiration-seeking woman. Their bucolic surroundings become a horrific battlefield when uninvited guests arrive on the scene to foil everyone’s plans. LIQUID SKY – 35th Anniversary Slava Tsukerman | USA | 1982 Heroin-seeking invisible aliens land on top of a NYC apartment inhabited by a drug dealer and her androgynous, bisexual, nymphomaniac, fashion model lover: Margaret (played by co-writer Anne Carlisle). The aliens quickly get hip to a better drug–orgasmic pheromones–and start vaporizing her casual sex partners. Things get weirder as Margaret’s arch nemesis Jimmy (also played by Carlisle), a lonely, horny neighbor across the street, and a German scientist get involved in the proceedings. PIN CUSHION – New England Premiere Deborah Haywood | UK | 2017 New to town, the inseparable dafty duo Lyn and her daughter Iona are excited to have a fresh start. Determined to establish herself successfully after a rocky start, Iona drifts away from her bestie/mum and becomes BFFs with the school’s equivalent of the “Heathers.” Forlorn, Lyn attempts to make friends of her own, but after a lifetime of being othered, she still struggles with the same vicious trials and tribulations of being different that her daughter now faces. REVENGE – New England Premiere Coralie Fargeat | France | 2017 What starts as a weekend getaway between a married man and his mistress quickly devolves into a deadly game of cat and mouse when his hunting buddies arrive. Director Fargeat revamps and recalibrates the rape-revenge trope from a female perspective, creating a violent, visceral monomyth about the rebirth and survival of a woman wronged seeking to even the score. SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES – World Premiere Jessica Barnthouse, Stacy Buchanan | USA | 2018 Something Wicked This Way Comes is a full-feature exploration into the popular horror culture of New England. Through discussions with genre luminaries, horror fans, and natives, the film discovers popular conventions within the genre and identifies how they’re driven by the history, eerie settings, and social issues of the area. And through the stories of actors and local filmmakers, it aims to discover if the area’s passion is strong enough to help grow an independent film industry. TOP KNOT DETECTIVE – New England Premiere Aaron McCann, Dominic Pearce | Australia, Japan | 2017 This is the story of how a failed Japanese samurai series, RONIN SUIRI TENTAI (Deductive Reasoning Ronin), became an instant Australian cult classic. Badly acted, translated and edited, the show centered around a detective samurai who solved crimes and killed monsters while avenging his master’s murder. This hilarious doc digs up the bizarre behind the scenes antics that it’s creator and co-stars got up to, and investigates how the main star ended up in jail 20 years later…or maybe not!
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42nd Hong Kong International Film Festival Announces Lineup, Opens With Taiwanese Films “Omotenashi” and “Xiao Mei”
[caption id="attachment_27270" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Omotenashi[/caption]
The upcoming 42nd edition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival announced their lineup. The festival will run for 18 days from March 19th until April 5th, 2018. The opening night on March 19th will feature two gorgeous films from two promising Taiwanese directors – Omotenashi, directed by Jay Chern and Xiao Mei, directed by Maren Hwang. Closing film will be the World Premiere of What a Wonderful family! 3: My Wife, My Life, the latest work from the acclaimed comedy series by the Japanese master Yamada Yoji.
Omotenashi is a co-production of Japan and Taiwan with up-and-coming Taiwanese director Jay Chern, which offers a heartwarming portrayal of the younger generation learning to appreciate the cultural differences and traditional values through love and respect; whereas Maren Hwang’s Xiao Mei brilliantly juggles elements of film noir and suspense in exploring the riddle of identity and truth through the mystic tale of a vanished girl. Directors and casts of both opening films will join HKIFF42 Grand Opening on 19 March. Veteran director Yamada Yoji continues his success inWhat a Wonderful Family! 3: My Wife, My Life, the third installment of his amusing series that playfully exposes the changing values and behavior within contemporary Japanese society. The world premiere of this much anticipated film will bring a delightful conclusion to this year’s Festival.
The “Filmmaker in Focus” this year is Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia, one of the most distinguished actresses in Chinese language cinema. To celebrate the 45th anniversary of her career since her screen debut, HKIFF42 will showcase 14 of her films including the new restoration of her first film Outside the Window. Lin will share her insights on film and life in the “Face to Face” seminar.
Werner Herzog, one of cinema’s most celebrated filmmakers, will attend HKIFF42 and conduct a Master Class. His first visit to the Festival will be honored by a retrospective of his films, giving local audiences a rare opportunity to watch his classics, including four of his greatest cinematic achievements and his latest documentary Into the Inferno, which reflect his frantic imagination and poetic stylization.
HKIFF will also present the Hong Kong premiere of HTC’s first virtual reality (VR) Chinese language film, The Deserted. This groundbreaking work is directed by Taiwanese master Tsai Ming-Liang, with the support of HTC VIVE, ZOTAC Computer, and the Hong Kong Baptist University’s Academy of Film. TSAI and Golden Horse Award winner Lee Kang-Sheng will lead the Hong Kong audience through an unparalleled eye-opening VR experience, and share their visions of this cinematic innovation in a Master Class.
In addition to the two masters, the Japanese documentarian Hara Kazuo, known for his highly original and controversial films, will bring his latest work Sennan Asbestos Disaster and meet the audience in a Master Class. Several world-renowned directors will also visit Hong Kong for screenings of their films. Acclaimed American independent filmmaker Sean Baker, with his celebrated new film The Florida Project, will share his filmmaking experience. Kagawa Kyoko, the legendary Japanese actress of the Mizoguchi Kenji masterpiece A Story from Chikamatsu, and Ozu Yasujiro’s classic Tokyo Story will share her collaborations with the giants of Japanese cinema following the screening of the newly restored classic. The late Filipino master, Ishmael Bernal, will be featured in the Restored Classics section, and his longtime screenwriter, Ricky Lee, will also meet the audience to share his insights.
Cinephiles can enjoy a number of internationally award-winning films firsthand at the HKIFF. These include In the Fade, winner of the Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes and Cannes Best Actress Award for Diane Kruger’s powerhouse performance; Joaquin Phoenix took home the Cannes Best Actor Award with You Were Never Really Here, which won the Cannes Best Screenplay Award alongside The Killing of a Sacred Deer; as well as Cannes Jury Prize winner and Oscar-nominated Loveless. Award winners from the Venice Film Festival include Grand Jury Prize winner Foxtrot, Special Jury Prize winner Sweet Country, Best Director award winner Custody, Best Actress Award for Charlotte Rampling in Hannah, and Best Actor Award for Kamel El Basha in The Insult. The Berlinale award winners include Grand Jury Prize for Mug, Outstanding Artistic Contribution Award for Dovlatov, winners of FIPRESCI Jury Prizes for River’s Edge andAn Elephant Sitting Still, the latter also won Special Mention for Best First Feature Award.
Multifaceted Argentine and Danish films open up new frontiers in the international scene. HKIFF42 will celebrate the achievement of Lucrecia Martel, a major auteur and forceful leading light of New Argentine Cinema, by showcasing four of her acclaimed works, including Zama, her latest and multiple award-winning film. In the New Danish Cinema section, six outstanding films will be showcased, including Thelma, a chilling psychological thriller from director Joachim Trier, the topical Borg/McEnroe, and Winter Brothers, winner of four major awards at the Locarno International Film Festival.
The Awards Gala Night will feature the international premiere of Transit, directed by acclaimed German auteur Christian Petzold. The French Night will feature Custody, helmed by the Venice Best Director winner Xavier Legrand, who will come to Hong Kong to greet the audience. HKIFF will also present the Canadian film Ava, a feature debut about women’s fight for independence by Sadaf Foroyghi, who will meet the audience at the screenings.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Polish independence, HKIFF42 will present a prelude program “70 years of Polish Animation: Live Animation x Music”. The program will feature celebrated Polish filmmaker-animator Mariusz Wilczyński with live hand-drawn animation while the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra will present fabulous music under the baton of Polish conductor Sebastian Periowski.
In response to what the festival describes as “overwhelming response” HKIFF has decided to continue with the “Audience Choice Award”, which was first launched last year.
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Chris Hegedus and D A Pennebaker to be Honored with 2018 Advocate Award at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
Filmmaking legends Chris Hegedus and D A Pennebaker with the 2018 Advocate Award at the upcoming 2018 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival for “their towering contributions to the documentary community, filmmakers, and the festival”. The Advocate Award will be presented during the 21st annual festival, April 5 to 8, 2018, in Durham, North Carolina.
Ms. Hegedus and Mr. Pennebaker form one of the most respected and unique teams of documentary filmmakers working today, and they have been deeply involved in Full Frame since its earliest days. Over the last two decades, they have screened their films at Full Frame (including Startup.com, which won its first award at the festival and was codirected by 2018 Tribute honoree Jehane Noujaim), participated on panels, mentored and collaborated with other filmmakers, and continue to serve on the festival’s National Advisory Board. Their support and advocacy helped Full Frame become one of the most unique and important festivals in the world.
“Chris and Penny have always been just a call away for both Sadie [Tillery, Full Frame Artistic Director] and me—to answer a question, reach out to a documentarian we may not know well, or offer their counsel,” said Full Frame Director Deirdre Haj. “But it is their spirit at the four-day festival itself that exemplifies who they are to the entire documentary community. They are always available, whether it’s giving feedback to the Garrett Scott Grant recipients, many of whom go on to win major awards, or just sitting next to a young film student in a theater and striking up a conversation. There is rarely a festival that passes that I do not hear someone exclaim, ‘I was having the most amazing conversation, and then I realized I was speaking to [Chris and Penny]!’ On a personal level, from the day I came to Full Frame, these were—and still are—my filmmaking heroes. To have them so devoted to this festival that we all love so dearly means the world to me.”
Hegedus and Pennebaker set the tone for an atmosphere of free exchange at Full Frame through their accessibility and generosity. Filmmakers return to the festival year after year to connect with one another in a supportive environment, see each other’s work, and engage in conversation between artists, students, and audience members.
“We have so many wonderful memories of coming to the festival with the subjects of our films,” said Hegedus and Pennebaker, including Branford Marsalis (The Music Tells You), Al Franken (Al Franken: God Spoke), and 2010 Opening Night Film star Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer (Kings of Pastry), who constructed a six-foot sugar sculpture for the Opening Night Party. “Full Frame continues to be a festival for filmmakers and for audiences. But most of all, it’s about watching documentaries that inspire and compel us to action through stories that make us laugh and cry and think. We love this festival. It’s been a joy to be a part of it for so long and we are honored to receive this award.”
Past recipients of the Advocate Award include Molly Thompson, Senior Vice President for A&E IndieFilms; Josh Braun, Cofounder of Submarine Entertainment; Jim Goodmon and Michael Goodmon of Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc., CEO and Vice President of Real Estate, respectively; and Richard Brodhead, former president of Duke University.
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Berlinale 2018 Awards: TOUCH ME NOT Wins Golden Bear | Complete List
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Touch Me Not by Adina Pintilie[/caption]
It’s awards time at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival, and Touch Me Not by Romanian artist and director, Adina Pintilie, won the top prize, the Golden Bear for Best Film. Touch Me Not follows a filmmaker and her protagonists in a personal research project on intimacy. The film takes us on a journey of discovery through the emotional worlds of Laura, Tómas and Christian, blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality, and providing profoundly insightful insights into their lives.
Winners of 68th Berlin International Film Festival Awards
PRIZES OF THE INTERNATIONAL JURY
GOLDEN BEAR FOR BEST FILM (awarded to the film’s producer) Touch Me Not by Adina Pintilie SILVER BEAR GRAND JURY PRIZE Twarz Mug by Małgorzata Szumowska SILVER BEAR ALFRED BAUER PRIZE for a feature film that opens new perspectives Las herederas The Heiresses by Marcelo Martinessi SILVER BEAR FOR BEST DIRECTOR Wes Anderson for Isle of Dogs (Isle of Dogs — Ataris Reise) SILVER BEAR FOR BEST ACTRESS Ana Brun in Las herederas (The Heiresses) by Marcelo Martinessi SILVER BEAR FOR BEST ACTOR Anthony Bajon in La prière (The Prayer) by Cédric Kahn SILVER BEAR FOR BEST SCREENPLAY Manuel Alcalá and Alonso Ruizpalacios for Museo (Museum) by Alonso Ruizpalacios SILVER BEAR FOR OUTSTANDING ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION Elena Okopnaya for costume and production design in Dovlatov by Alexey German Jr.GWFF BEST FIRST FEATURE AWARD
GWFF BEST FIRST FEATURE AWARD endowed with € 50,000, funded by GWFF Touch Me Not by Adina Pintilie SPECIAL MENTION An Elephant Sitting Still by Hu BoGLASHÜTTE ORIGINAL — DOCUMENTARY AWARD
GLASHÜTTE ORIGINAL — DOCUMENTARY AWARD endowed with € 50,000, funded by Glashütte Original Waldheims Walzer The Waldheim Waltz by Ruth Beckermann LOBENDE ERWÄHNUNG Ex Pajé Ex Shaman by Luiz BolognesiPRIZES OF THE INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM JURY
GOLDEN BEAR FOR BEST SHORT FILM The Men Behind the Wall by Ines Moldavsky SILVER BEAR JURY PRIZE (SHORT FILM) Imfura by Samuel Ishimwe AUDI SHORT FILM AWARD endowed with € 20,000, enabled by Audi Solar Walk by Réka Bucsi BERLIN SHORT FILM NOMINEE FOR THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS Burkina Brandenburg Komplex by Ulu BraunPRIZES OF THE JURIES GENERATION
Children’s Jury Generation Kplus CRYSTAL BEAR for the Best Film Les rois mongols Cross My Heart Hand auf’s Herz by Luc Picard SPECIAL MENTION Supa Modo by Likarion Wainaina CRYSTAL BEAR for the Best Short Film A Field Guide to Being a 12-Year-Old Girl Handbuch einer 12-Jährigen by Tilda Cobham-Hervey SPECIAL MENTION Snijeg za Vodu Snow for Water Schnee für Wasser by Christopher VilliersInternational Jury Generation Kplus
THE GRAND PRIX OF THE GENERATION KPLUS INTERNATIONAL JURY for the best feature-length film, endowed with € 7,500 by the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk Sekala Niskala The Seen and Unseen Sichtbar und unsichtbar by Kamila Andini SPECIAL MENTION Allons enfants Cléo & Paul by Stéphane Demoustier THE SPECIAL PRIZE OF THE GENERATION KPLUS INTERNATIONAL JURY for the best short film, endowed with € 2,500 by the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk Jaalgedi A Curious Girl Ein neugieriges Mädchen by Rajesh Prasad Khatri SPECIAL MENTION Cena d’aragoste Lobster Dinner Hummer zum Abendbrot by Gregorio FranchettiYouth Jury Generation 14plus
CRYSTAL BEAR for the Best Film Fortuna by Germinal Roaux SPECIAL MENTION Retablo by Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio L. CRYSTAL BEAR for the Best Short Film Kiem Holijanda by Sarah Veltmeyer SPECIAL MENTION Je fais où tu me dis Dressed for Pleasure by Marie de MaricourtInternational Jury Generation 14plus
THE GRAND PRIX OF THE GENERATION 14PLUS INTERNATIONAL JURY for the best feature-length film, endowed with € 7,500 by the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education) Fortuna by Germinal Roaux SPECIAL MENTION Dressage by Pooya Badkoobeh THE SPECIAL PRIZE OF THE GENERATION 14PLUS INTERNATIONAL JURY for the best short film, endowed with € 2,500 by the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education) Juck by Olivia Kastebring, Julia Gumpert and Ulrika Bandeira SPECIAL MENTION Na zdrowie! Bless You! by Paulina ZiolkowskaPRIZES OF THE INDEPENDENT JURIES
PRIZES OF THE ECUMENICAL JURY
Competition In den Gängen (In the Aisles) by Thomas Stuber Special Mention: Utøya 22. juli (U – July 22) by Erik Poppe Panorama Styx by Wolfgang Fischer endowed with € 2,500 Forum Teatro de guerra (Theatre of War) by Lola Arias endowed with € 2,500PRIZES OF THE FIPRESCI JURY
Competition Las herederas (The Heiresses) by Marcelo Martinessi Panorama River’s Edge by Isao Yukisada Forum An Elephant Sitting Still by Hu Bo GUILD FILM PRIZE In den Gängen (In the Aisles) by Thomas StuberCICAE ART CINEMA AWARD
Panorama Tinta Bruta (Hard Paint) by Marcio Reolon and Filipe Matzembacher Forum Teatro de guerra (Theatre of War) by Lola Arias LABEL EUROPA CINEMAS Styx by Wolfgang FischerTEDDY AWARD
Best Feature Film Tinta Bruta (Hard Paint) by Marcio Reolon and Filipe Matzembacher Nominated: Las herederas (The Heiresses) by Marcelo Martinessi and Touch Me Not by Adina Pintilie Best Documentary/Essay Film Bixa Travesty (Tranny Fag) by Claudia Priscilla and Kiko Goifman Nominated: Yours in Sisterhood by Irene Lusztig and Shakedown by Leilah Weinraub Best Short Film Three Centimetres by Lara Zeidan Nominated: T.R.A.P by Manque La Banca and Je fais où tu me dis (Dressed for Pleasure) by Marie de Maricourt Special Jury Award Obscuro Barroco by Evangelia Kranioti L’Oréal Paris TEDDY NEWCOMER AWARD Retablo by Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio L. CALIGARI FILM PRIZE La casa lobo (The Wolf House) by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña PEACE FILM PRIZE The Silence of Others by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FILM PRIZE Zentralflughafen THF (Central Airport THF) by Karim Aïnouz Special Mention: Eldorado by Markus Imhoof HEINER CAROW PRIZE Styx by Wolfgang FischerREADERS’ JURIES AND AUDIENCE AWARDS
PANORAMA AUDIENCE AWARD Fiction Film Profile by Timur Bekmambetov PANORAMA AUDIENCE AWARD Documentary Film The Silence of Others by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar BERLINER MORGENPOST READERS’ JURY AWARD Dovlatov by Alexey German Jr. TAGESSPIEGEL READERS’ JURY AWARD L’empire de la perfection (In the Realm of Perfection) by Julien Faraut TEDDY READERS’ AWARD POWERED BY MANNSCHAFT Las herederas (The Heiresses) by Marcelo MartinessDEVELOPMENT AWARDS
COMPASS-PERSPEKTIVE-AWARD Überall wo wir sind (Everywhere We Are) by Veronika Kaserer KOMPAGNON-FELLOWSHIP Blutsauger by Julian Radlmaier (Perspektive Deutsches Kino 2017) When a farm goes aflame, the flakes fly home to bear the tale by Jide Tom Akinleminu (Berlinale Talents 2018) ARTE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE The War Has Ended by Hagar Ben Asher, produced by Madants (Poland), Match Factory Productions (Germany) and Transfax Film Productions (Israel) EURIMAGES CO-PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT AWARD Madants (Poland), Match Factory Productions (Germany) and Transfax Film Productions (Israel) for The War Has Ended (Director: Hagar Ben Asher) VFF TALENT HIGHLIGHT AWARD Producer Jing Wang (China) for Tropical Memories (Director: Shipei Wen)
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SXSW 2018: See New Artsy Poster for Megan Griffiths’ SADIE
The new artsy poster debuted this week for Sadie, written and directed by Megan Griffiths, which will screen at the upcoming 2018 SXSW Film Festival. Sadie stars Sophia Mitri Schloss, Melanie Lynskey, John Gallagher Jr., Tony Hale, Keith Williams, and Danielle Brooks.
Sadie is the story of a 13-year-old girl (Sophia Mitri Schloss) who lives at home with her mother (Melanie Lynskey) while her father serves repeated tours in the military. Sadie is extremely attached to her father despite his prolonged absence, and when her mother begins dating a new man (John Gallagher Jr.), Sadie takes extreme measures to end the relationship and safeguard her family through the only tactics she knows – those of war.
Sadie SXSW Festival Screenings
World Premiere: Saturday, March 10th at 4:15pm (Stateside) Screening #2: Sunday, March 11th at 12:15pm (Alamo Lamar B) Screening #3: Wednesday, March 14th at 4:30pm (Alamo Lamar E)
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Berlinale 2018: Veronika Kaserer’s “Everywhere We Are” Wins Compass-Perspektive-Award
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Compass Perspektive Award
Winner Veronika Kaserer and the jury from left to right Sol Bondy, Veronika Kaserer, Jules Herrmann, Sung-Hyung Cho.[/caption] On the closing night of Perspektive Deutsches Kino program of the 2018 Berlin International film festival, the Compass-Perspektive-Award 2018 for the best film was presented to Überall wo wir sind (Everywhere We Are) by Veronika Kaserer. Endowed with 5,000 euro, this year is the second time the prize has been awarded. The filmmaker received a compass as trophy, symbolically it should serve to provide orientation and direction. During the festival, the jury members watched all 14 entries in the competition of the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and, after deliberating intensively, picked their favourite. As the jury members stated: “The prize goes to a film that divided our jury and sparked heated debates. But we decided to honour precisely this film, rather than settle on a compromise, as we firmly believe that consensus films are not where the future of German cinema lies.” Jury Statement – Überall wo wir sind (Everywhere We Are): Veronika Kaserer has made a film about grief, which at the same reminds us that life is worth living. With an astonishing closeness, unconventional montage, and many surprising moments, she portrays the last weeks and days of Heiko Lekutat, a 29-year-old Berlin dance instructor, and, most notably, his wonderful, big-hearted family. Does the film cause us pain because the family’s sorrow distresses us so, or do we suffer because we feel that the great intimacy to those grieving oversteps a line and in doing so impinges on our own sense of well-being? The editing constantly flashes back and forth between “before” and “after” Heiko’s death. Is it legitimate to disrupt the process of dying in this way in order to arouse, on an abstract level, empathy for the psychological and emotional process of grieving? The fact that a film triggers fierce sentiments and debates is a fine quality. We congratulate director, producer, and camerawoman Veronika Kaserer. Image/credit: © Daniel Seiffert / Berlinale 2018
